OpenSource
Category archives for OpenSource
What Open Source Software has Good Usability?
Posted by Greg Laden on October 23, 2012 Are you interested in software usability and open source? If so, my friend Jim would like your help. He is doing a study of usability in Open Source software. I’ll post his entire request below along with a link to his blog. Also, he’ll probably be doing some other interent based interolocution about this; I’ll…
Technology good news and bad news. Mostly bad news.
Posted by Greg Laden on April 17, 2011 Good news: The next version of Internet Explorer will only run on Windows 7. That should be the end of Internet Explorer. Bad News: Google Video is done with. It will stop existing on April 29th. Well, I never used it so I don’t really care personally, but this is why I once said that…
Linux Ease of Use: Designing The Ultimate Grandmother-Ready Computer
Posted by Greg Laden on December 31, 2010 When it comes to ease of use, there is no difference between a computer with Windows and a computer with Linux, assuming both systems are installed properly. That there is a meaningful difference is a myth perpetuated by Windows fanboys or individuals who have outdated experience with Linux. Also, the comparison that is often being…
Why the Linux Market Share is Flat, and other things you will want to see.
Posted by Greg Laden on August 30, 2010 he Linux market share continues to flatline. Here’s a piece on why. My explanation? Same as for a lot of things: People are morons, by and large. The article linked to mentions very good reasons that Linux should indeed not be adopted by others. But most of those reasons actually apply to other OS’s as…
Coming Soon to an OpenSource Platform Near You
Posted by Greg Laden on July 31, 2010 Item 1: Linux has perfectly good fonts these days, and they are getting better. Patents held by Apple Corporation did not allow basic technology (the Bytecode Interpreter)to be implemented in Linux fonts (without paying). FreeType (the Linux font system) worked around this and things were workable, but still, having the Apple technology would have been…
Ubuntusci: Nice idea but you may be doing it rong
Posted by Greg Laden on June 15, 2010 I like the idea of an edition of Ubuntu for scientists. I like the idea so much that I wrote a blog post about it a while back. So I was very pleased to see that there is a project called Ubuntusci that is moving along nicely and that may fill in this niche. But,…
Can four geeks working out of their garage replace Facebook with an OpenSource project?
Posted by Greg Laden on June 2, 2010 Possibly. Quite possibly: Diaspora: Personally Controlled, Do-It-All, Distributed Open-Source Social Network from daniel grippi on Vimeo. Hat tip: Ronja Addams-Moring
Introducing … Ubuntu Science Edition…
Posted by Greg Laden on May 2, 2010 Wouldn’t that be great? Hey, there’s an Ubuntu Christian Edition, an Ubuntu Muslim Edition, and another Ubuntu Christian Edition. Why not an Atheistubuntu? Or a Skeptibuntu? or, more usefully, I would think, Sciencebunutu with Atheistic tendencies? (And for those of you who like to cross certain boundaries there could be a Science Fiction Edition. Called,…
What is Markdown and why use it?
Posted by Greg Laden on February 1, 2010 The joys of markdown are many.
“R” statistical company gets new and important board members
Posted by Greg Laden on January 25, 2010 Robert Gentleman and Donald Nickelson have joined the board of REvolution Computing. Gentleman is co-creator of this OpenSource statistical package which is widely used by researchers. The news was released moments ago, and here is a press release from the company:
YAE of why the OpenSource model is better than the Proprietary model
Posted by Greg Laden on January 24, 2010 Although if Microsoft wasn’t the Gorilla in the Room example of Proprietary the contrast may not be as stark. Maybe…. JH at Linux in Exile discusses the anti-Google “bug” in IE that MS left in place for months.
Which operating systems support USB 3.0?
Posted by Greg Laden on January 19, 2010 Now that USB 3.0 is out, when will Linux get it?
The Freesound Project
Posted by Greg Laden on January 15, 2010 If you haven’t seen, ah, heard it, you should check it out. Free sounds. For free.
De-windowizing Ubuntu: Turning off the terminal close warning dialog box.
Posted by Greg Laden on January 8, 2010 Ubuntu, Imma gonna let you be my operating system, but first, I gotta ask you to stop acting more like Windows with every new release. K?
How To Use Linux ~ 04 Instalilng Software
Posted by Greg Laden on December 25, 2009 This is the fourth in a series of posts on using Ubuntu Linux specifically written for that select group of people who are smart but non-geek computer users who are using Linux because they are. Just are.
Linux Links for your Edumication and Enjoyment
Posted by Greg Laden on December 24, 2009 I’ve assembled links to a few sites that people new to Linux should consider exploring.
How To Use Linux ~ 03 Files
Posted by Greg Laden on December 22, 2009 This is the third in our six or seven part series on how to use Linux if you are a regular smart person who needs a functioning computer but is not a geek. Today, a few items to know about files.
How To Use Linux ~ 02 Distros
Posted by Greg Laden on December 21, 2009 This is a continuation of a series of posts written for non-geeks just starting out with Linux. Today, we look at the concept of a “distro” and why it is important to you as an average user of Linux.
How To Use Linux ~ 01 Introduction
Posted by Greg Laden on December 20, 2009 This is the first of a series of posts written for non-geeks just starting out with Linux. The idea is to provide the gist, a few important facts, and some fun suggestions. Slowly and easily. Some of the posts in this series may end up being useful references, so consider bookmarking those.
Switching to Linux: One man’s personal experience
Posted by Greg Laden on December 18, 2009 Photographer Scott Rowed has penned an excellent essay on his experience making the switch to Linux, and he’s agreed to place it here as a guest post. Please read it and pass it on to people, school districts, small island nations, and others who may benefit:
My job is to make you happy. About using Linux. UPDATED
Posted by Greg Laden on December 16, 2009 I’ve convinced a few people to use Linux and most of them don’t hate me, but most of them were masochistic geeks who were probably going to use Linux anyway. But there are three people who are pretty important to me who are now using Linux because of me, but who otherwise would not likely…
OpenSource Science?
Posted by Greg Laden on December 11, 2009 If you have not yet read John Wilbanks’ posts on OpenSource Science, which is a critique of the idea, than you should. Start with this one. There are two more right after that. But they are very long, so by the time you are done reading all three of those, there will probably be a…
The Free Market, Flu Vaccine and The Role of Gummit
Posted by Greg Laden on November 23, 2009 The Free Market is a god-like powerful force that we can rely on to solve our problems, especially those of supply and demand. So if, as the WHO estimates, about 2% of the population is going to be covered by H1N1 Swine Flu vaccine then … shall we assume that the other 98% of the…
Linux Terminal Fun: Find out about your hardware
Posted by Greg Laden on November 13, 2009 The command dmidecode is ” is a tool for dumping a computer’s DMI (some say SMBIOS) table contents in a human-readable format. This table contains a description of the system’s hardware components, as well as other useful pieces of information such as serial numbers and BIOS revision.” (from the “man”).
A new open source computer language. Go.
Posted by Greg Laden on November 12, 2009 No, don’t go, stay! The NAME of the language is go. Which was a poor choice of name because it will be very hard to google “go.” In fact, Google won’t let you google “go” by default because it is one of the SLWs (stupid little words) that Google prefers to pretend does not exist…
Vilification Ping Pong: Open Source vs. Proprietary Solutions in the Library Setting
Posted by Greg Laden on November 8, 2009 Fight! Fight! The librarians are fighting about software!
The next document I put together will be done with LyX
Posted by Greg Laden on November 7, 2009 I don’t mean blog posts or emails. For blog posts I use souped up gedit, and for emails I use pico. (There was a time when I thought I’d be using emacs for both of those, but emacs suffers from a deep philosophical dysfunction.) I’m talking about longer documents that have sections with headings, bibliographies,…
Software needed: Nifty bash math tools
Posted by Greg Laden on November 6, 2009 And when I say bash math, I do not mean being mean to math, and I do not mean math as it is done in bash. I mean math as humans do it, but on the bash command line.
Brother Mike Drinks the Kool Aid
Posted by Greg Laden on October 26, 2009 My blogging brother Mike Dunford steps in to save poor old Apple Corporation from me and a few others who consider building corporate ads into an operating system to be evil. He’s wrong, I’m right, but if you must go read his post and decide for yourself.
, which is now available for the 
